Remove Bromate from Drinking Water

Clean, pure drinking water is an important key in attaining a healthy lifestyle. Water is consumed everyday with great quantity because the body requires the presence of water in order to function well. The water we consume should not only be enough to help our body, but should also be free from harmful substances than can cause health complications. There are various water treatment methods that are used today that can help in eliminating unwanted substances found in water. However, these methods also have different disadvantages. For example, the process of ozonation with water produces a carcinogenic by-product called Bromate. Bromate poisoning can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, kidney problems and nerve problems.

The process of ozonation with water is a disinfecting method that reacts to the Bromide Ion which is frequently found in most water sources for drinking. The ozonation process forms a by-product called Bromate. The Bromate found in drinking water may vary in levels depending on the water chemistry and the ozone exposing time. Bromate has been an undesirable by-product because it is being suspected as a human carcinogen and might provide a risk in the provision of a safe water supply. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a level that it considers protective of non-cancer health effects from long-term exposure, including individuals who may be more susceptible including women of childbearing age and children. Assuming an adult drinks about two quarts of water a day at the drinking water standard of 10 micrograms per liter, their exposure is about a sixth of that level. The increased lifetime cancer risk from drinking this water everyday poses a moderate risk level of about two in ten thousand. These exposure and risk estimates are likely to be overestimates since most people would not consume two quarts of water containing bromate at the standard for their lifetime. Bromate poisoning has been found in other people which includes the following symptoms nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, kidney problems and nerve problems. It is worth nothing of course that the amount of Bromate they have been exposed to be over a thousand times greater than the Bromate found in normal drinking water. Moreover, those exposed to high levels of bromated can suffer kidney effects, nervous system effects and hearing loss.

Keep in mind that bromates in small amounts prove to be harmless and if only ingested in large amounts proves harmful to the human body. As a carcinogenic by-product of a water treatment method, it ought to be removed from the drinking water. Bromate can aggravate kidney problems which are suffered prior to the intake of high levels of bromate. It can also cause gastrointestinal complications.